Hell House
by Tom Neven on 10/30/2007 at 2:34 PM
With what is perhaps impeccable timing, my Netflix queue recently delivered up the documentary Hell House just in time for Halloween. This 2001 film profiles Trinity Church of Cedar Hill, Texas, which has put on the ultimate Halloween haunted house since 1991. This "haunted" house, which the church itself has dubbed Hell House, is really a series of short vignettes depicting various symptoms of a fallen world: gang violence, drug dealing, homosexuality, rape, abortion, suicide, and even a full-on rave party complete with demon-faced DJ spinnin' the platters.
I was ambivalent about the whole idea of hell houses since I first heard that a church in Denver was selling kits so that other churches could put on their own "outreach" events. After watching this film, I'm ambivalent no more.
Where to begin? Set aside the really bad acting in these vignettes. (All the "cast members" seem to mistake emoting for acting.) Or the unintentional comic moments, such as when, as opening time looms, the stage manager realizes that a prop knife is not in the suicide scene, where it belongs, but rather in, of all places, the hell vignette. He promptly gets on his radio and says, "Tim, could you please go to hell for me ..."
No, what first bothered me was the fact that not a single person at this large church auditioned for the role of Jesus or an angel. After the casting sheet is posted, we see kids saying gleefully, "I get to be abortion girl!" Or teen guys saying, "We get to be rapists!" There's also suicide girl, pedophile, adulteress, homosexual man dying of AIDS, and numerous demons, to name a few. Oh yeah, and the rave DJ. One kid is heard saying he's happy he got the rave scene "because you get to dance."
And then, finally, in the last room, the variously amused, bemused, or scared-witless people who paid $7 for the pleasure are told that they must immediately make a decision to allow Jesus to forgive their sins -- complete with a countdown: "Decide now, folks ... six, five, four ... or forever know the consequences ... two, one ... okay, leave now." No invitation to attend the church, no choice to get to know more about Jesus, to better understand Christianity -- no nothing other than a sense that you've lost your final chance. (The few people who do decide are led into another room, where church members await to pray with them. There's no way of knowing, based just on this film, if there's any kind of follow-up or discipling afterwards.)
Then there is the whole "theology" behind the hell house phenomenon. An entire book could be written about people deciding to become Christian solely as "fire insurance." To be sure, Jesus often warned of hell. But note that in these instances, it is God himself condemning the people to hell. In Hell House, it is demons, often seen taunting and then dragging off sinners amid much thrashing and emoting.
And that leads to the biggest problem with Hell House and its many progeny: It gives an exaggerated and, in a way, false sense of what gets a person eternally damned. It's not just the "big" sins depicted here; it's the subtle pride that leads a person to say, "Well, I haven't murdered or raped anyone, I don't do drugs, and I've never cheated on my spouse, so I guess I'm okay." It's the petty backbiting, gossip, self-centeredness, and the everyday being ourselves that condemns sinners. As C.S. Lewis wrote in The Great Divorce,
There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it.
Short of knowing that we are desperate sinners in our everyday state and consciously choosing to agree with Jesus' sentence and while accepting his forgiveness -- that's the literal meaning of "believed in his name" in John 1:12 -- will we escape the just sentence awaiting all sinners.
Hell House, unfortunately, makes it easy to miss this most basic message of the Gospel.
1. kman said the following at 2:59 PM on Oct 30
I agree. They only told part of the story. It would be awesome if there was something else showing all these sinners being forgiven by Christ. Don't just scare people away from Hell but bring them to Jesus through understanding of the gift He offers.
2. John D. said the following at 3:04 PM on Oct 30
The whole notion just seems wrong somehow. It gives Christians an opportunity to revel in evil and wickedness, vicariously, for an allegeedly good cause.
Warning the unsaved about hell is Biblical. Nowhere in the Bible, however, do you find one of the apostles wallowing in the manifestations of wickedness. Aren't Christians supposed to mourn over these types of sins?
3. Ken Brown said the following at 3:06 PM on Oct 30
This is an excellent post!
I visited one of these Hell Houses when I was in junior high, before I became serious about my faith. I remember thinking that this kind of thing was precisely what would make me *not* want to be a Christian. Besides presenting the faith as a kind of "fire insurance," it reinforces the stereotype that Christians relish the damnation of everyone who doesn't follow their rules. A brief and superficial presentation of the gospel at the end does nothing to mollify this impression.
Perhaps not all Hell Houses come across that way, but the one I attended certainly did.
4. Jan said the following at 3:08 PM on Oct 30
I would have to agree that scaring non-believers into accepting Christ is wrong. Although I have not been to one of these "hell houses" I have been to something similiar. When I was a non-believer one of my relatives took me to see a play at her church. In the play they showed different scenes where people died and found themselves standing at the gates of Heaven. If their name was in the Book of Life then Jesus would come out and welcome them with a hug. If their name wasn't in the Book of Life then demons came and dragged the person away to Hell. After the play was over the pastor invited people to come forward and accept Christ. My relative started pushing me to go foward but I said I wanted time to think about it. However, my relative was so worried about my salvation that over the next few weeks she kept trying to scare me into accepting Christ. On one occasion she started erratically driving on the highway, claiming that if we crashed and died, she would go to Heaven and I would not. After another particular frightening experience I finally did accept Christ. Although this tactic might work for a few, I strongly discourage it.
5. Lyss said the following at 3:33 PM on Oct 30
I saw a brief skit being performed in the streets of Detroit a few months back that will stick in my mind forever, and it reminds me of this.
There was a teenage girl who kept entering the "wrong doors" in life and experimented with drugs, sex that lead to an abortion, alcohol and other things that are mentioned in the hell house. However, in the end, they emphasized the fact that at last she came to know Jesus and went into a ballet skit of her dancing with Him. It was amazing.
I also think that if they included a forgiveness portion at the end and showed these sinners being saved, that would be so much more effective.
6. DT said the following at 4:08 PM on Oct 30
Ahh, scare tactics. Lovely.
Why is it so hard to understand that ONLY THE GOSPEL saves people? Isn't this the most basic tenet of Christianity?
7. Andrew R. (aka Canadian Boy) said the following at 4:46 PM on Oct 30
I wonder why no one has thought of making a Jesus Camp/Hell House double feature.
I've got nothing much more to say. I bet the Hell House would be laughably bad. Honestly... a countdown? That is sad.
8. Jo said the following at 4:58 PM on Oct 30
I've never heard of this before - it seems to me appalling. :S
9. Allison said the following at 5:34 PM on Oct 30
Things may have changed since I went to the Trinity Church Hell House 9 years ago, but I still remember it very vividly.
When I went, the culmination of the scenes occurred when we all "went to Hell" and were surrounded on all sides by scary "demons" - until we were ushered into a dark hallway with a bright light near the end.
Once we all moved toward the light, we found ourselves in the "heaven" portion of our trip. "Jesus" was there, begging us to accept him. Not long after that we came out and there were people waiting to ask you if you had a personal relationship with Jesus or not.
Tom forgot to mention the "heaven" part - which is kind of like a "forgiveness" part that attempts to make up for all the hellish stuff we'd just witnessed. However, that doesn't mean that the "Hell House" is legit. I was pretty excited about it back in my holy roller junior high years, but now...I'd have to say it may not be as effective as I thought.
10. DannieA said the following at 10:47 PM on Oct 30
the thing is....people aren't being "scared" into believing anymore in this day and age...as they might have been in the past. So I don't particularly subscribe to this presentation...but I do think that it was sincerely orchestrated when it started
11. Jamie Morton said the following at 11:00 PM on Oct 30
Thank goodness I'm not the only one who feels this way! I agree that the whole concept seems wrong, and absolutely laughable to most normal people. In fact, there's a spoof on this called Hollywood Hell House. A woman in Hollywood bought one of the kits ($250) and set up the Hell House in order to expose the ridiculousness of it.
But I also know that it seemed like a pretty good idea when I was, like Allison, in my younger, holy-roller days. Never particularly wanted to go to one, but I fooled myself into thinking, "It's good that someone is trying to reach out to these people!"
Now it just seems ill-conceived and crass.
12. Loris said the following at 7:41 AM on Oct 31
This just seems incredibly tasteless. It just sounds like another thing Christians are doing to themselves to lose their credibility. I honestly think that if I went through a Hell House as an unbeliever, I would conclude that Christians were insane at best and a dangerous cult at worst.
Even as a believer, this seems like a strange and ineffectual means of witness.
13. Adam Sloope said the following at 8:00 AM on Oct 31
Scare 'em in to heaven, Turn or Burn! This thought or way of evangelizing has always bothered me. People often don't need to be told what not to do or that they are dirty sinners and are going to hell, most people need to know that there is a God who created everything that loves them and wants a relationship with them. We only love God because He first loved us. I had a great conversation with a friend the other day about this turn or burn, number focused evangelism. The point we came to was this: things like hell house, tracts, and other effective evangelism tools only exist because we do not truly understand or live out what creating disciples means. Maybe one of those poor kids who subjected themselves to this Hell House walked away really thinking about Jesus, but because they didn't make the decision based on the churches terms, right then and there in that little room, feel like they are condemned forever. That kid needs to be told, it's okay to wrestle with this and needs to be taught from the Word who Jesus is. When we use Hell Houses to scare people into accepting Jesus I think we are further from discipleship than we would like to realize.
Again, I think all these little tools and resources we have as American Christians are good, but only exist because we don't understand evangelism as a lifestyle instead of an event. So I'm not blasting Hell House or tracts, just bringing up the sad reality that we have become lazy with investing in lives for Christ.
14. Tom Neven said the following at 10:44 AM on Oct 31
Allison
I didn't "forget" the heaven part, since it was not part of the film, which is all I have to go by. But if indeed there is such a scene, shame on the filmmakers for not including it. It mitigates in a small way--emphasis on "small"--what goes before it.
15. Philip said the following at 3:32 PM on Nov 2
The Hell House documentary itself is not a complete run through of every part of Hell House that people experience when they go through the actual event. Hell House offers an alternative to the "gorefest" of the haunted houses which attempt to scare you and present evil. Hell House presents reality and provides opportunity for prayer at the end for those who want it, does not ever say you must join the church, but everyone is given the opportunity to make a choice to accept Jesus before leaving. It scares those who want to be scared. Not everybody makes it through to the end, not everybody agrees or likes the way its presented. Like it or not, some people can only be reached by this method.
16. John said the following at 5:44 PM on Nov 4
I can see this as being affective if done right. (Good acting, good special affects, etc.)
It should definitely be followed up with a straightforward presentation of the gospel, either immediately following or as an information card filled out for someone from the church to contact the person later.
Free literature should be handed out and/or invites to return during normal hours for more information about the gospel and the church.
There could also be information on church ministries that help individuals who may have made the errors depicted in the skits.
One of the greatest sermons in the history of english was about "turn or burn". (By a little known fellow by the name of Edwards!)
Again, if done well, this could be a tremendously affective way and opportunity to minister to and share the gospel, during a particularly dark season.